If Jason Christie were a stock, his one-month chart would be a steeply cut V, as in victory.
There was an almost inexplicable low between his seventh and eighth Bassmaster victories, the second-best portfolio among active Elites to Rick Clunn’s 16. Christie, visiting the JM studio to discuss his most recent title in the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on Chickamauga Lake, laughed at the idea.
“If I was on the stock market … all I’d have to say about that, if you look back at my career, the Santee Cooper Lakes was probably one of my worst finishes ever,” he said. “I think that is what’s going to keep me from ever winning Angler of the Year. To be honest, it’s the way that I fish. I just don’t lay up.”
Going for it is why he suffered a second-to-last 93rd on Santee Cooper Lakes, just two Sundays after finishing some business and winning the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk at Lake Hartwell. Christie, a 48-year-old from Park Hill, Okla., does not have layup in his vocabulary, he said.
“My boat should be wrapped in the movie Tin Cup — I’m going to go for it every time,” Christie said, referring to Kevin Costner’s character who gambled despite hitting ball after ball into the water. “That’s just me in a nutshell. That’s one of my weaknesses, I guess. It’s a weakness, but it’s also my strength.”
And it’s afforded him eight victories in 96 B.A.S.S. entries — a win for every 12 tournaments. Nobody with more than two Bassmaster titles is close to his ratio of wins to entries.
Christie has a history of rebounding from bad events. During Chickamauga, writer Steve Wright posted that Christie had a volatile a stock chart in 2018. Christie followed a 97th at Grand Lake with a fourth, then had a 94th at Sabine (where he won a year ago) before a 17th at La Crosse. He finally finished the year with a fifth at the AOY Championship on Lake Chatuge after a horrific 101st on the St. Lawrence River.
Explaining the good after the bad isn’t so easy, Christie admitted, because it’s not like an angler can practice more or roll out any truly magical baits. There might be some digging down deeper, but one would think anglers are giving their all at each event.
“Some of it is just being competitive,” Christie said. “You roll into an event that I really thought I was going to do good and I do terrible, it kinda burns you a little bit. As soon as Santee was over, I was like, ‘I sucked. I was terrible. I’m mad. Move on.’ You can’t be there sitting thinking about it. You have to be able to forget your last event.”
At Hartwell, Christie exorcised some demons. In the 2018 Classic there, he was one fish shy a limit and 18 ounces short of winning. In March, he weighed in just enough to top Kyle Welcher and Stetson Blaylock by ounces in one of the closest Classic finishes.
Saying the Classic title, with its automatic berth to defend next year, would allow him to fish with no worry of chasing points, Christie went into Santee Cooper riding a bull market. One fish over two days saw his stock plummet.
“There’s been a few events like that, not a lot of them,” said Christie, specifically recalling Grand Lake in his home state. “What happens is I just get so dialed in on one thing that I just lose sight of everything else. That’s what happened at Santee Cooper. I just got dialed into something, and I was going to make it work no matter what.
“Here’s what’s crazy. Same thing here (at Chickamauga). I get dialed in and I’m going to make it work. But it worked.”
Boy and how. Although he started back in the pack, Christie reached Championship Sunday with two consecutive 20-pound bags, the second of which included a 6-pounder at his last stop. That fish left him knowing he had a shot to win.
“It’s not, ‘Hey, I got it.’ It’s always ‘I have a chance.’ That’s always my goal,” Christie said. “If I can just get there, I feel like I have chance.”
Brock Mosley led Daisuke Aoki by 3 ounces and Christie by 6 ounces when they blasted off. Heading to his first spot, fog forced Christie to stop short and fish an area he had been thinking about from years earlier. It produced his biggest bass and gave him the start on the biggest bag of Day 4, when bluebird skies hampered the bite for all. Christie culled to 15-12 for 73-7, topping Mosley by 3-8.
The win on Chickamauga moves Christie into a tie for ninth all-time with five others, including Davy Hite and Mike Iaconelli.
It also moved him 31 spots up the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings to 37th. That’s inside the cut to qualify for the Classic, so some other Elites are hoping Christie doesn’t have any more bad events. If he stays double qualified, one more in the AOY points will earn a berth to fish the 2023 Classic on the Tennessee River out of Knoxville.
While Christie earlier downplayed his chances at winning an AOY, he’s never finished below 36th, and that was his first Elite season in 2013. Christie was 11th in the AOY standings last year, his first back after two years fishing MLF. He scored three top 15 AOY finishes before being runner-up to Brandon Palaniuk in 2017, when he was just 14 points back.
So, despite his ups and downs, it might be wise to keep some stock on Jason Christie.